Start with the reader and the frequency. A quarterly members’ magazine and a monthly trade title need different things from their templates. Tell us who reads it, how often it comes out and who produces it after launch, and we design the system around that.
Magazine design
Issue one sets the rules for issue fifty.
Our magazine design builds the cover, grid and type styles your publication will use for years, then lays out each issue to them.
The approach
A magazine is a system
Each issue looks new, but the bones underneath stay the same. Get those bones right in issue one, and every later issue is a matter of flowing in fresh content.
We design the masthead, the cover template, the contents page and the layouts for features and news, along with the paragraph and character styles behind them. Your editor gets a style guide, and whoever lays out issue twelve works to the same rules as issue one.
What we design
The parts of a magazine we design
- Masthead and coverThe title treatment, and a cover layout that works with a different photo every issue.
- Grid and master pagesColumns, margins and a baseline grid that hold every page together.
- Section templatesContents, features, news, interviews, columns and adverts, each with its own pattern.
- Type stylesHeadlines, standfirsts, body text, captions, pull quotes and folios, all set as styles.
- Advertiser specificationA sheet listing ad sizes, bleed and file rules, so adverts arrive ready to place.
Print and digital
Binding, size and digital editions
| Choice | Options | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Binding | Saddle stitched or perfect bound | Stitched issues go up four pages at a time; perfect binding adds a printed spine |
| Trim size | A4, 230 × 300 mm or US Letter | Check postage bands before you settle on a size |
| Paper | Silk or gloss inside, a heavier cover | Uncoated text paper suits campaigning and literary titles |
| Digital edition | Page-turning PDF, accessible PDF or web articles | A PDF alone is hard work to read on a phone |
Print & design
Related services
Questions
Questions about magazine design
Question not here? Send it to us and we will answer it directly.
Ask a questionCan our own team lay out future issues?
Yes. We hand over the master template, the style sheet and a short guide, so an in-house designer can produce later issues to the same standard. You can also have us design the launch issue only, then bring us back for covers, special editions or a refresh when the title needs one.
What determines the cost of magazine design?
The first issue costs most, because it includes designing the masthead, grid, styles and templates. After that, each issue depends on its page count, how many features need their own layouts and how much image work is involved, such as cut-outs and retouching. Your quote separates the set-up from the price of each issue.
Do you help with advertising pages?
Yes. We write a specification that tells advertisers the sizes, bleed and file format, then check every advert that arrives against it before it goes in. Where an advertiser has no artwork of their own, we can design their advert in your house style or theirs, quoted separately.
What does the printer need from us?
Usually a print-ready PDF of the whole issue as single pages, with bleed and crop marks, plus a separate cover file for perfect-bound issues so the spine can match the final page count. The printer handles imposition, which arranges the pages on each press sheet. We confirm their exact specification before we export.
Launching a new title?
Plan your magazine design
Send a past issue or a sample of the content, the page count, how often you publish and the printer you use. The fixed quote we send separates the launch design from each later issue. From there, your magazine design starts with the cover and the grid.